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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Among state correctional halfway houses reports of violence,
drug use and escapes are rampant. While the idea of a transitional facility helping
inmates to adjust to society may be sound, there appear to be horrible political
barriers that impede proper oversight to these systems. In an undoubtedly
troubled economy, poorly utilized resources are especially intolerable.

When stories surface such as the one this past summer, where
inmate David Goodell from Logan Hall escaped and killed Vivianna Tulli due to
poor security and oversight, it opens a proverbial can of worms that is hard to
ignore.

At Bo Robinson correctional facility in Trenton, a janitor
sexually assaulted a female inmate for weeks before she was transferred to
another facility in 2009. As the story came out so did many other sad truths
about the facility. Gangs and violence forced some employees to quit. The
number that hits home for NCADD-NJ and our efforts is that when this
correctional halfway house was investigated, 73% of the inmates tested positive
for drugs. This is consistent with the high number of substance abuse found
among prisons. If quality substance abuse and mental health services were
actually being provided in a clinically sound way, the number of inmates would
be significantly reduced in both the prisons and step down halfway houses. This alone would save the state
money. Instead, operators continue to build additions to accept more prisoners
while lining their own pockets, as they are paid by the inmate.

One can’t help but wonder if these horrifying truths are in
large part due to political contracts and egregious mismanagement of funds. A
particular company being looked at right now is The Kintock Group, A “non-
profit” organization that is the second largest operator of correctional
halfway house facilities in NJ. The Kintock Group is given government contracts
to operate several of the NJ correctional halfway house facilities each year. When
the founder has been paid over $7 million dollars in the past decade, at what
point is an organization considered for-profit? The organization has near $40
million in revenue. It seems they simply call themselves non-profit because
they provide some “community services”. There is little accountability and
clarity as to where these contract dollars are going. Also lacking is oversight
as to whether servicesthat
are claimed to be provided, such as: